B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 10,324 Shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 21.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 38,471 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 10,324 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in GSK were worth $1,495,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of GSK during the first quarter valued at $31,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of GSK in the second quarter worth $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in GSK in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. PrairieView Partners LLC bought a new position in GSK during the 2nd quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in GSK during the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. 15.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GSK. Barclays upgraded GSK to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Argus raised shares of GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup raised shares of GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.00.

GSK Stock Down 2.1 %

GSK stock opened at $39.46 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $81.78 billion, a PE ratio of 14.30, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.66. GSK plc has a 12-month low of $33.67 and a 12-month high of $45.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $41.61 and its 200 day moving average is $41.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. GSK had a net margin of 12.87% and a return on equity of 51.48%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that GSK plc will post 4.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a $0.3843 dividend. This represents a $1.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This is a boost from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. GSK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.71%.

Insider Activity

In other GSK news, major shareholder Plc Gsk purchased 2,791,930 shares of GSK stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $8.00 per share, with a total value of $22,335,440.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 16,775,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,205,528. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 10.00% of the company’s stock.

GSK Company Profile

GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, and manufacture of vaccines, and specialty and general medicines to prevent and treat disease in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Commercial Operations and Total R&D.